House ‘taken over’ by pirates
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Pirate figures dominate the lawn of Jeff Cox’ home on Lemon Tree Drive. The house, known for elaborate displays during Christmas, has taken on a different vibe in celebration of Halloween.
Madera’s Christmas House, at 1101 Lemon Tree Dr., has been taken over by pirates and skeletons for Halloween.
Homeowner Jeff Cox decorates nearly every square inch of his corner house for Christmas, but for Halloween, his front yard is taken over by more than a dozen skeletons and more than a dozen inflatables.
“We are more for the kids,” he said. “There’s nothing that will jump at anybody. We wanted to do something for the kids to come by. It’s like a block party over here.”
Cox, who even started a Facebook page for his Christmas house, has been at the home for 10 years and has been decorating for Halloween and Christmas ever since.
“I’ve been doing it for 25 years,” he said. “Just having people come by, the expression on the kids’ faces and the family getting into it is why I do this.”
In addition to Christmas and Halloween, Cox has decorations out for St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July and Easter.
“I also decorate for Thanksgiving. I have turkeys, Indians and just got pilgrims this year that the wife doesn’t know about,” he said. “If I can find a groundhog, I would decorate for that, too.”
Decorating for Cox started in Nevada where he participated in a contest for Christmas decorations.
“It looked like a fun thing to do,” he said. “One guy would buy one Santa and I would buy three. I wish Madera would have a contest. There were a lot of prizes, but it didn’t cover the cost of electricity.”
Cox is hoping that Madera will have a Christmas decorating contest to get more people in the decorating spirit. However, Halloween decorating is about his wife.
“I said Christmas wasn’t enough and she pushed Halloween,” Cox said. “She makes the design and decorates the skeleton. She buys the kids’ costumes to put on the skeletons.”
In addition to his wife, his grandkids have started to get into the decorating spirit.
Cox says he will buy $200 in candy and go through it.
“We open the garage up and have a table,” he said. “We’ll have an inflatable archway and the kids will come up. We tried to figure out a way to make it easier for the people. We will also put out more stuff on Halloween.”
Halloween is just the start of a busy three month stretch for Cox. He says he will keep the Halloween decorations up for a couple of days and then the Thanksgiving display will go up.
“The turkey comes down Thanksgiving night and we start on the Christmas decorations,” he said. “We will already have the lights in the bushes.”
